Party Island - aptly named because that's all I did there. I met up with the Kiwis (Ange and Fleur) after having to practically swim to their resort and was adopted into the Phangan Beach Resort crew. I only spent time at my resort to sleep, which is a bit of a shame since I had such a glorious bungalow but alas, this is party island afterall!

I was only there for two nights in the first night, I was dragged to a Muay Thai fight which I had yet to experience because someone from the PBR was fighting that night after only two months of training. The fight started out very tame; I had heard rumours that this was the most vicious wrestling/boxing sport and was disappointed. Until the middle of the second fight where things started to heat up. I found my Calgarian hockey voice and started screaming for blood.

There were a lot of us in the group - about 20 from the resort showed up to cheer on the Brit who would go on to fight an island native. The excitement was palatable, we were all sitting on the edge of our seats waiting for John's fight. Of course, Muay Thai is just about the longest sport ever and nearly four hours later, he was getting into the ring. We were all on our feet, completely annoying those behind us who ended up having to stand to see around us. I guiltily moved to the side but no one else budged so it really didn't matter. Once the fight started no one cared.

Maybe it was having to wait so long but the fighters didn't begin slowly and cautiously like the others, they went at each other's throats from the get go. There was a lot of cheering, screaming, swearing and some standing on chairs with fists raised in the air. At some point, one of the guys from our section was getting mascara applied to his lashes by Ange because she couldn't believe how long and beautiful they were. What a contrast to the blood spatter in the ring!

Round Two began with John getting hit quite a few times in the face - we were all wincing and booing, cheering him on which is when mascara man said something along the lines of "MAKE HIS ASS BLEED!" I had to look at him on that one with a raised eyebrow; "I'm pretty sure that's an illegal move." He just shrugged, downed another Chang (remember my warning: Chang makes you c.r.a.z.y), batted his beautiful lashes and went on screaming. Rah rah KILL HIM!! It was pretty intense all around. John must have been feeling our energy because all of a sudden he punched his opponent right in the face and the guy passed out for a few seconds. Long enough for John to win his first ever Muay Thai fight by the end of Round Two.

Phew - just remembering it makes me tense. It is pretty vicious. There are no rules save that you are not allowed to hit in the groin area (that's just playing dirty) but otherwise, anything goes. If you youtube "Muay Thai" you can apparently find a pretty famous video where there are fighters and one guy kicks the other one in the shin, completely snapping his leg in half. *gag* No holds barred, that's for sure.

So, that was Saturday.

Sunday night was the Full Moon Party which was supposed to be on Friday (and thus, I would have missed) but was postponed because of Buddah Day and the elections. You can't even buy alcohol (freely available at your local 7/11 for about 30 cents) on election day. And you can't gamble with the King's money, I was told with a wagging finger as I was trying to play poker. Oops.

Anyway, the Full Moon Party was kicked off with much excitement at the PBR, of course. The crew over there were pretty drunk by 9pm (this party lasts all night and into the wee hours of the morning) when I got there. We didn't actually get to leave the resort until 1:30am because of the crap taxi service. That annoyed me to no end I must admit, being that I must would have rather been on the beach drinking than in a resort drinking. By the time we got there, I was pretty near sober again and most of our group couldn't walk.

The taxi ride was quite dramatic with a crusty Brit, who had been getting on everyone's last nerve for days with rumours circulating that he was beating his Thai girlfriend, getting into a very nasty fight with a young Norwegian girl. Calling her all sorts of words you really can't repeat - anywhere. Which led to her screaming at him to just hit her because that's what he liked to do and ended in our Thai escort basically removing him from our taxi. Intense. Dramalama! Must have been the (jungle) Chang.

The party itself was an interesting beach party with a bunch of bars open all night/morning and people trying to dance on tables/chairs/other people. It rained so we all ended up wet and sandy which was unpleasant but easily ignored after a bucket full of coke and Thai whiskey. (shudder) Yes, I said bucket. (shudder shudder) After the taxi drama I decided I was far too sober for this crap and dove headfirst into bucket mania. Woooo. Bring on the Mee Khong (super cheap Thai whiskey not the river)!

All in all, it was a fun experience that you have to have when you're in this part of the world but considering all the hype about it, it was a bit of a let down. Though perhaps if I'd been there before 3am, it might have been more fun! Me bitter, no way!

I got home to watch the sun rise which was nice and ending up standing in the doorway trying to decide whether it was worth going to sleep for a couple hours since I had a 9:30am ferry to catch to Koh Samui. In the end, I slept for a bit and ended up on the seasickening ferry feeling a little better than I would have had I not.

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I christened Koh Samui with the name Thong/G-String island as it was full of Europeans with a complete disregard for my cones and rods. I think I seared my retinas staring into the sun to avoid looking at all the neon coloured g-strings worn by 50 year old Germans. God help me. Note to self and others: G-strings are NEVER E-V-E-R a good idea!

Nothing much happened on Samui as I was recovering from the FMP and I hadn't really relaxed on the beach as of yet. Thus I spent my couple of days there laying on the beach, checking out the bum-lookalike rocks and getting a lovely sun burn because I'm not used to needing sunscreen!

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And that long windedness brings me back to Bangkok - of course! - where I am currently trying to get to Laos before I am deported because my visa has run out. I intend to be in Laos with a 15 day visa and then will be coming back into Thailand until I meet up with Granny on the 27th of March in Singapore.